Creamy Cauliflower Soup

I must admit, when it comes to learning to cook new recipes, it’s the picture of the dish and its simplicity that makes me want to. One such recipe that captivated my attention recently was TBC's Creamy Cauliflower Soup. The way she presented the soup made me drool all over it and I had to give it a try. I've never made a soup before (Yes, not even once) and her picture goaded me into dishing out one. Thank you TBC for your inspiration and for the recipe!

I've followed her recipe to the T with mild variations. TBC's recipe can be found here.

Ingredients for Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Cauliflower: 1 head
Onions: 1 small or 1/2 medium.
Potato: 1 small
Carrot: 1 small
Garlic: 2 cloves
Pine Nuts: 2 tbsp (optional)
Olive Oil: 2 tbsp
Vegetable stock *: 1/2 cup
Milk: 1/2 cup
Nutmeg: ¼ spoons
Salt n Pepper: to taste
Any Herbs**: Rosemary, Celery, Parsley, and Cilantro

Preparation:

• Remove the outer leaves and thick stalks of the cauliflower head. Break cauliflower into small sized florets. Wash them. Take about 1 cup of these florets. Alternatively, you can use frozen Cauliflower


• Peel and chop onions, potato, carrot and garlic.


• Toast the pine nuts in microwave for about a minute or two on high.

Method:

Heat Olive Oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sauté onions and garlic for 2 minutes and then add cauliflower, potato and carrot. Stir occasionally for about 3-4 minutes. Add pine nuts too.

Add vegetable stock or water and cook until the veggies are well cooked.

Remove saucepan from heat; Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor.

Reheat the sauce pan with the puree over low-medium heat. Add in about half cup of milk/water to the puree and cook for about 5 minutes. You can vary the quantity of milk/water depending on the consistency of soup you require.

Stir in a pinch of nutmeg powder, herbs, salt and pepper as per taste. Turn off the heat.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup is ready to be served.

Note:

* A simple version of vegetable Stock is to sauté carrot, onions, a little of coriander seeds and Fennel seeds and cook them with water. Strain the vegetables and use the water as your vegetable stock. The left over veggies can be pureed to be used in the soup.

** I’ve used Italian Herbs Seasoning mix that you would get in the grocery store.